Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. There is a very simple question at the heart of the government’s commitment to reforming wheat legislation and wheat marketing, and it is this: should wheat growers be allowed to choose who they sell their wheat to? The National Party has decided that the answer to that is no, but the problem is that we have to provide certainty to wheat growers. Wheat growers are now at a time when many of them either have planted or are about to plant and, understandably, want some certainty in what the marketing rules will be for the next harvest. Against that, we have the unusual situation where the shadow minister does not speak on behalf of the opposition.

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